László Kovács, Commissioner
responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, welcomed the results of the
1st meeting of the EC-Japan Joint Customs
Cooperation Committee. "Cooperation of customs authorities between the EC and
Japan is vital, given the importance of our economic and trade relations.
Ensuring the security of the supply chain and facilitating trade through the
mutual recognition of security measures is of great importance in this context.
We are also interested in developing concrete measures to promote the protection
of intellectual property rights worldwide."

The European Community and the Government of Japan signed an Agreement on
Co-operation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters (CCMAA) on
30th January 2008. It entered into force on 1st February
2008.

Customs authorities are responsible for the expeditious and proper flow of
trade between the two large trading partners. The CCMAA provides the legal
framework to promote trade facilitation for reliable traders, to improve the
fight against fraud and to enhance cooperation on the protection of Intellectual
Property Rights.

Based on the agreement, the first EC-Japan Joint Customs Cooperation
Committee (JCCC) was held in Brussels on 11th February 2008 to
discuss practical ways of working together to implement the CCMAA. Director
General Robert Verrue, Taxation and Customs Union, represented the European
Community and Director General Yukiyasu Aoyama, Customs and Tariff Bureau, the
Ministry of Finance, represented the Customs Administration of Japan.

The discussion focused on 3 main subjects: supply chain security, IPR
enforcement through customs and the fight against fraud.

Regarding supply chain security and trade facilitation, the two sides
recognized the importance of progressing towards mutual recognition of their
Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) programmes and security measures for the
purpose of facilitating international trade while ensuring effective customs
control. They agreed to work closely to achieve such a mutual recognition at an
early stage and establish a working group to make recommendations to the JCCC on
this matter.

With regard to IPR protection, they underlined that co-operation between the
two authorities is indispensable for the fight against infringement of
intellectual property rights and committed to enhance their measures through
effective information exchange.

The parties also discussed mutual administrative assistance with the aim of
pursuing customs frauds and irregularities.They confirmed that the JCCC will
be held in principle once a year. Japan indicated its intention to hold the next
JCCC in Tokyo, which was welcomed by EC.